Postings on books (mainly non-fiction), a few films and matters of interest by Lorenzo from Oz (aka Downunder)

Monday, June 2, 2014

Andrew Sullivan being extremely sensible

Andrew Sullivan's commentary on the EU election results is by far the most sensible thing on the results I have read, since he gets both sides and realises the underlying conflict has to be managed, not "won". I particularly liked:

And, more to the point, Europeans increasingly feel they are not given a choice in any of this. So they vented.

Making folk feel ignored and powerless is not the path to social harmony. Also:

But when the money ran out, and the recession hit, and the EU only bailed out members on the basis of brutal austerity … the deal began to fray. Now that growth is returning, if only anemically, it appears, moreover, to be benefiting Blue Europe – the elites, the property-owners, the transnationals – while leaving ordinary, working- and middle-class Europeans in the dust. That fuels another layer of mistrust and despair.

The consequences of the ECB's "hard money" policy continue to resonate, badly.